A Prayer For The Dark Days

I’ve been praying for a long time. Praying for healing, restoration, peace. Praying for Your will to be done.

I believe You have the power to do it. You made a way across the Red Sea. You hold the earth together. You and You alone provide each breath I take.

But so far, You have not chosen to do answer this prayer.

You have allowed the pain, the hurt and the grief to remain, clouding every thought and weighing every breath.

And yet I see Your mercies every day.

I see them in the flowers that bloom, the kind words from strangers, the support of our community, the ability to laugh on tough days. I am so grateful for each small gift of mercy.

Still, I cannot help but wonder why the big request goes unanswered at the moment. Or, at the very least, why Your response is, “Wait.”

Because I know You are big enough. So, so very big. You could change this with no effort.

Yet at this time, You have not chosen to do so.

It’s very difficult to accept that, Lord.

Father, I know that my mind is finite. It is limited. I cannot grasp Your ways and reasons (Isaiah 55:8-9).

I know this. I know that I know this.

But my heart still aches to understand.

And Lord, I’m starting to see it’s not about the presence of pain and grief. Not really.

Underneath the request is an anguished cry of a child who needs to know she is still loved by God and that God has not abandoned her–even when life seems full of pain and hardship.

Lord, give me strength to believe that You are present even when I don’t not feel You or sense You.

Savior, give me strength to submit to Your will, whatever may come.

Abba, give me the hope of knowing one day all things will be made right, even if it is not on this side of heaven.

Oh Lord, my God and my Savior, You can do all things.

Help me to believe in and trust You even when You choose not to do all things.

—————————————————————————

Friend, sometimes life is very, very tough.

Sometimes God doesn’t seem to answer your prayers.

Sometimes you have to cry out to God for the strength to trust Him when the days are long and dark.

If you’re there in that moment now, my heart goes out to you. I’ve been there, too, in those moments when the darkness seems to be closing in and you can’t understand where God is amid the pain.

I can’t sit next to you or walk alongside you every moment of this trial.

But the Lord can be and is present with you.

He will never forsake you.

No circumstance, however bleak it may look, can separate you from His love (Romans 8:38-8:39).

And dear friend, take heart knowing that even Jesus had an unanswered prayer. He asked that the cup would be taken from Him, if God was willing, but then humbly submitted, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:41-44)

There’s so much theological mystery in that exchange. But I think one of the reasons it was included was to comfort us when our prayers are not answered.

Because Jesus knew the pain of asking for something that He would not receive.

Take comfort in that thought, dear friend. Continue to ask and pray as Jesus did. Be honest with the Lord about the pain of unanswered prayer.

And share your requests with me and with the community of believers. We will pray for you, dear friend. You are not alone.

—————————————————————————

As the rain and the snow fall down from the sky. And they don’t return, but they water earth and they bring forth life. Giving seed to the sower. Bread for the hunger. So shall the Word of the Lord be with a sound like thunder. It will not return, it will not return void. You shall be lead in peace and go out with joy. –“The Sower’s Song” by Andrew Peterson and Isaiah 55—